Advocacy Day is Huge Success

Nearly 50 Birth Matters supporters ventured to the Capitol on January 19th to visit with legislators and serve them lunch in the Capitol Rotunda. We are extremely grateful to everyone who helped in anyway to make this such a successful event. Thank you so much for your donations of time, food and financial gifts as well as your continued prayers.

Today we will be collecting signatures of sponsors on our two bills. We anticipate that the Licensure Bill will get a number by midweek – so watch for a message when that happens. At that point, we will send you a link, so you can read it online. We expect the Decriminalization Bill to get it’s number the following week.

After the bills get their numbers, they will be assigned to a committee, where we will be allowed to offer testimony. It would be wonderful to have supporters attend those committee meetings in person. We will give you as much advanced notice as we can as to when those meetings will occur. If we get the majority of legislators on the committee to vote “Yes” on our bill, then it goes to the full body to vote on – usually a day or two later. If it passes, then it gets sent to the other chamber, where it will be assigned to a committee and go through a similar process. If it passes both houses, it gets sent to the Governor for his signature.

We are at the beginning of an exciting journey that could end with a new law to allow our families access to Certified Professional Midwives. We will do our best to keep you updated every step of the way, so that you can do all you can to contribute to the efforts. Thanks in advance for all your help!

For those of you who came to Pierre, this is a great time to send a thank you note to any legislator who took the time to visit with you. You can enjoy some great pictures of the day on our South Dakota Birth Matters Facebook Page.

Thank you to everyone who made our 2016 Legislative Lunch and Advocacy Day such a success!